Wiegraf's Guide To Synthesis: Cooking
Wiegraf's Guide to Synthesis: Cooking ---- Introduction Myself I am a Hume WAR and WHM from Odin and currently have Cooking and Fishing (Ebisu Fishing Rod!) Veteran Ranks and upcoming Veteran Leathercraft on a mule character. I've been playing for about 3 years and been crafting since day one. I got sick of people saying that they have no way of making Gil and decided to write this guide to help them get on their feet and master the culinary arts. I plan to write one for every craft that I get to Veteran rank. The Guide I've read many guides about cooking and they are well, hit or miss. Some are outdated, some are slow and some are just plain useless. As they say on them, "This article is a personal guide. Information expressed in this guide is one player's opinion and may be...blah blah blah". I don't know about you, but I need a guide that is reliable and from a player who has analyzed the prices and losses/profits of each synth. Not one that has "possible options" to synth with because the author isn't sure what to make, but one that offers the best synths to get you through the levels. This guide is meant to get you to 100 as quickly as possible with spending as little as possible. It focuses on getting ingredients from an NPC or the Auction house and not wasting time farming. I don't screw around with synths that take a week to get through just because it saves you 2k gil unless there is nothing else to make. This guide consists of what gets you there the fastest and are not too expensive. Some synths will cost you a bit of change but overall they are "power synths" designed to pound through the levels. Let's face it,nobody wants to waste away synthing all day getting nothing done. As an example I lent this guide to a friend of mine who power leveled it 0-60 on only 30,000 Gil. Trust me, it'll pay off at the end. First of all I am aware of the layout of this and the content. It is all there for a reason. I give a picture for every synth and the product and ingredients. I know..I didn't give you the HQ items. They don't matter since this focuses on the actually synthesis product. If you HQ something then that is fine but I'm not focusing on them. If you want more info about the HQ's of a synth, go to the item's main page. I seperate things based on rank. Check it all out on the Table of Contents to make it easier. As for feedback, send me a message about it and I will fix it. There may have been something I missed or that needs to be fixed. If you are going to edit something, please put your sig next to it and let me know what you fixed. I'll double-check it and give you credit. I give you Wiegraf's Guide to Synthesis: Cooking. Cooking Guide Amateur These are a good intro to cooking. These are very fast synths and are all very cheap and should take you only a few hours to get through. I'd recommend camping an NPC and loading up on a ton of the ingredients since you will burn through them. Some take 4x of the same type. Don't worry, they NPC for a fair amount. Carrot Broth (0-3) : :Yield: Carrot Broth x4 : :*4 x San d'Orian Carrot Basic synth. Get the San d'Orian Carrots at the Ronfaure NPC in Southern San d'Oria West of the Auction House. They will run you near 33g each. Carrot broth should be NPC'd. It is sold at Chocobo stables for very cheap. Hard-Boiled Egg (0-6) : :Yield: Hard-Boiled Egg : :*1 x Bird Egg :*1 x Distilled Water The Bird Eggs can be bought for cheap at the guild or even for relatively cheap at the Auction House. They are about 50-150g each. I wouldn't buy for more than 70-80g each from the guild as they should be near 1k each on the AH. It may vary server to server. Best to check it yourself. Distilled Water from NPC; 12g each. Just NPC them for 20g each. It's a loss but fairly cheap to make and it stacks so doesn't take up much room. Grilled Hare (0-6) : :Yield: Grilled Hare : :*1 x Dried Marjoram :*1 x Hare Meat Hare Meat should cost you near 500g per stack and Dried Marjoram is fairly cheap; near 500g per stack as well I believe. The Hare meat is available at the guild in Windurst but don't get it there unless you absolutely HAVE to. It is near 5x more than at the auction house. You can stick a few stacks of Grilled Hare on the AH or bazaar but honestly you can just NPC them. Start with any one of these. You should be fine synthing the level 6 cap synths right away at level 0 depending on the day/moon phase. If you have too many fails switch to Carrot Broth and get a few levels. Either way take Grilled Hare or Hard-Boiled Egg to cap before you go on to our next synth. Now if you want to try to make some Gil back from the synths or want to use the Grilled hare go ahead, but if you just want to power through these levels go with Hard-Boiled Egg. Honestly I hate not being able to get rid of stuff quickly so I went with the Hard-Boiled Eggs. Boiled Crayfish (6-9) : :Yield: Boiled Crayfish : :*1 x Crayfish :*1 x Distilled Water :*1 x Rock Salt If the Crayfish are cheap (30g each, 500g/stack on the AH) then it is an overall cheaper synth considering you can NPC the product for 96-102g. Rock Salt and Distilled Water from NPC also. Orange Juice (6-10) : :Yield: Orange Juice : :*4 x Saruta Orange I assume you can NPC the Orange Juice also, but it won't be as much (50g). If you are a mage or have mage friends you can sell them Orange Juice for cheap. It doesn't really matter; take your pick. Either way will get to level 10. Get the oranges from the NPC in Windy. Still a fairly cheap synth overall. You might be able to sell some on the AH but not very fast since it is such a low level synth. Just get through it and we can move on to your next rank. Test Item: Salmon Sub Sandwich : :Yield: Salmon Sub Sandwich : :*1 x Crying Mustard :*1 x Black Bread :*1 x Apple Vinegar :*1 x La Theine Cabbage :*1 x Smoked Salmon :*1 x Mithran Tomato Don't make these. They are a complete waste of time. Of course, there are some asshats around that aren't using my guide and can't cook if their life depended on it. Use their stupidity for your own benefit; buy this item off of the Auction House. If none are there go ahead and make one. It won't be too expensive but kind of a pain to make. If you want you could always get from the guide if they are cheap. It ranges from 1,946 to 5,204 so do what you want. ---- Recruit Slice of Carp (10-17) : :Yield: Slice of Carp x2 : :*1 x Moat Carp or Forest Carp Fairly straightforward. Get the Moat Carp off of the Auction House for 2-3k or fish them up yourself. I'm not a fan of farming so only fish them if you have to. Wouldn't hurt to work on fishing as well. The fish themselves cap at 11 if you want to fish them. These can just be NPC'd. They probably won't sell on the AH. You don't have to do this synth to cap, but at least get to 14-15 or so. It will help lessen the breaks on the next synth. Apple Juice (15-20) : :Yield: Apple Juice : :*4 x Faerie Apple Selbina Butter (15-20) : :Yield: Selbina Butter x4 : :*1 x Selbina Milk :*1 x Rock Salt Pick either one of these. Like before, the Juices don't stack so take your pick. The butter is used for many higher level and mid level synths so it will sell well on the Auction House for a reasonable amount of profit. The Apple Juice isn't too much of a loss if you NPC them; about 60g lost per synth. Like before, here are the NPC prices: Selbina Butter - 22g, Apple Juice 76-110g. Honestly, I would do the Selbina Butter. *Note: The Selbina Butter can be used later on for Pie Dough (42). Test Item: Pea Soup : :Yield: Pea Soup : :*3 x Blue Peas :*1 x Wild Onion :*1 x Dried Marjoram :*1 x Distilled Water You can make it or buy it I don't care. The ingredients are fairly cheap and it is not a skillup item. There should be some floating around somewhere. ---- Initiate Meat Jerky (20-26) : :Yield: Meat Jerky x2 : :*1 x Dried Marjoram :*1 x Giant Sheep Meat :*1 x Rock Salt A decent synth and your best bet for shrinking the amount of levels between your last and next synth. No reason to do to cap unless you want to. At least get to 24 or so with it. It sells decently because it is a melee damage-dealer food. NPC's for 30g. Insect Ball (24-29) : :Yield: Insect Ball x12 : :*1 x Little Worm :*1 x Millioncorn :*1 x Distilled Water I could not tell you why for the life of me, but even at 100 Cooking I tend to fail at least 1 of this synth every once in a while. Thank God it is cheap. They will sell on the Auction House because of their usefulness in catching Moat Carp. I would recommend stopping for a bit here if you are running short on gil. With just one synth you make a whole stack which is about 500g-1,000g on the Auction House. If not then move to the next synth. If you are curious 5g each to NPC. Definately better to sell on the AH. Pineapple Juice (24-30) : :Yield: Pineapple Juice : :*2 x Kazham Pineapple A great alternative if you don't like fishing or selling 97 stacks of Insect Paste on the Auction House. Useful for mages and NPCs for 97-115g. Test Item: Vegetable Gruel Yea back to that poor bastard making these worthless foods. Get it off of the Auction House unless you like wasting time. Novice 30-35 Meatball x12 Earth Crystal Distilled Water (9-12g) Hare Meat (139-163) San d'Orian Flour (54-66g) A decent synth. They are used by high level fisherman. Again, buy the Hare Meat from the Auction House or farm it yourself. I doubt they will sell at all on the Auction House because they are very cheap at the Fisherman's Guild so just NPC them or use them. NPCs for 10g. 35-42 Pie Dough x4 Water Crystal San d'Orian Flour (54-66g) Selbina Butter (45-292g) I hope you read my note earlier and saved some Selbina Butter. You can buy from the guild if you want but it will be near the price of what it cost you before. Take this synth to cap. Please remember to pass in your test item BEFORE going past level 40. This synth bridges 2 ranks. I'm not going to include the NPC price forthese for a specific reason. *Note: Save these for next synth. Test Item: Meat Mithkabob This is a good synth if you can farm the ingredients yourself. I honestly would not try to sell too many of them at this level because the HQ rate at high levels is phenomenal and they will outsell you. Also, there is not much profit if you buy the ingredients from the AH. You can synth it if you want and use the extra 5 yourself. Honestly, I would just buy a single from the Auction House. Apprentice 42-48 Apple Pie x4 Fire Crystal Cinnamon (234-286g) Faerie Apple (39-48g) Lizard Egg (Not sold at NPC) Maple Sugar (36-44g) Pie Dough (......You better have read my Note...64.) This is a decent synth considering you can break even or make a bit of profit on the Auction House. Mages use them so they sell fairly well. Save at least 1 for the Test Item. 42-50 Grape Juice Dark Crystal San d'Orian Grape x4 (68-106g) An alternative to pies. Same as other juices so you know the drill. They aren't too bad of a loss but still a loss considering NPC price (190g) so keep that in mind before you make 417 of them since they don't stack and require the sometimes more expensive Dark Crystal. Test Item: Apple Pie You may or may not have made one yet. If you don't have any, get one off of the AH for fairly cheap. Journeyman 50-55 Beaugreen Sautee Fire Crystal Beaugreens (90-110) Selbina Butter (45-292g) This is a solid synth. Cheap ingredients and easy to make too. Crank these out and take to cap. Just NPC them all for 160-169g each. 55-60 Bottled Crack...Err...Yagudo Drink Dark Crystal Yagudo Cherry (39-48g) Buburimu Grape x3 (180-220g) Now...this is an outstanding synth. I have done this synth literally THOUSANDS of times. Camp the Kolshushu vendor and take this bastard to cap. If you NPC these then I will kill you. They will sell very quickly on the AH (More so in Jeuno) and definately worth stopping skilling up for a bit to restock your gil supply. Keep one of these for your test item. Craftsman Congratulations! You made it to the soft cap of this craft. If you are done with it now then I hope you enjoyed this guide and good luck to you in the future. For those of you who are taking it further, restock your gil and get ready to roll. 60-66 Colored Egg Fire Crystal Distilled Water (9-12g) La Theine Cabbage (21-26g) Lizard Egg (Not sold at NPC) San d'Orian Carrot (33g) This is an awesome synth. It is very cheap to do and is the "power synth" of these levels. They NPC for 96-106g so go ahead. You may lose a bit of gil but these are very fast and cheap. Enjoy. 66-68 Colored Egg..Wait...What? Fire Crystal Distilled Water (9-12g) La Theine Cabbage (21-26g) Bird Egg (50-163g) San d'Orian Carrot (33g) But we already did this! It's a different synth with a different cap. Take it all the way to 68. Notice the Bird Egg used instead of the Lizard Egg. Bird Eggs are a bit easier to get so buy out the guild. Test Item: Raisin Bread Buy it if you can, but it is cheap enough to make. Artisan 68-72 Pear au Lait Derfland Pear x2 (126-154g) Honey (240-600g) Selbina Milk (54-64g) These aren't too bad. They will be a bit pricey for the Derfland Pears and Honey but people use these. Take these to cap. NPCs for 125g. *Note: These next 3 synths are all possible. Pick whichever you want. All are break even to profit synths. 72-80 Shallops Tropicale Fire Crystal Bay Leaves Distilled Water Kazham Pineapple Rock Salt Selbina Butter Shall Shell x2 This is your first speedbump. You will make profit on it no doubt, but they don't sell fast enough to crank them out like no tomorrow. Start making more gil for your later synths while waiting for these to sell. Take to cap and don't NPC them. 72-82 Goblin Drink Water Crytal Distilled Water Frost Turnip Gysahl Greens La Thiene Cabbage Phanauet Newt San d'Orian Carrot Watermelon Wild Onion